A place to discuss genealogy and history related resources for Thames, New Zealand.
A place for Thamesites, to visit and remember The Thames of old, the golden town that many of our ancestors called home.

At present alot of the past great Whakapapa sites seem to be offline, but here are a few:NZSG Maori Special Interest Grouphttp://www.nzsgmig.com/
and their resource Links page but several links no longer work

Waikato Uni have a names database collected by Rev. Henry James Fletcher (1868-1933).

Wonderful Books with whakapapa:Te Takoto O Te Whenua O Hauraki - Hauraki Landmarks by Taimoana Turoa, Edited by Te Ahukaramu Charles Royal. This book includes alot of information on places as well as people.

Waihou Journeys, The archaeology of 400 years of Maori Settlement by caroline Phillips. An excellent read to give background on the area and major settlements.

Maori Peoples of New Zealand. Te Ara The encyclopedia of new Zealand. A wonderful quick reference book for all tribal groups and contains alot of early whakapapa.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Great news for researchers, Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives are online"AtoJs Online contains a collection of digitised volumes of the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives. The collection currently covers the years 1862 to 1879. There are some volumes from this period that have yet to be added to the collection."

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Have just completed index for this paper of BMD Notices, plus Engagements, Obituaries, major Birthdays, Wedding Anniversaries.

4000 names and this did not include associated names mentioned. Amazing how at a wedding or 21st the reporter would note down everyone that attended, songs, MC, whay people wore, etc...

What is most interesting is the value placed on history and there were many excellent historical articles - I have placed a copy of these in the PLACES or PEOPLES Folders at The Treasury.

A copy of the index is available at The Treasury along with a scrapbook of the relevent clippings.
A Copy of the index is also available at the Thames Library, where the appropriate issue of the Thames Star paper can be viewed.

How often have you heard genealogists say, 'if only I had listened more carerfully to the stories that my family used to tell me.'

Projects such as recording oral histories allow these memories to be saved.
Thames has an oral history project, run by a sub-committee of "The Coromandel Heritage Trust"
Further information is available via The Treasury website

The recordings can be listened to at The Treasury Thames, along with transcripts and abstracts of the recordings. These can also be purchased.

This is the start of my blog which aims to explore and discuss the genealogy resources for Thames, New Zealand. At the same time covering aspects of Thames history in order to give you an idea of what life was like for our families who settled the Thames area.

We can easily set about collecting names as we construct our family trees, but how rich they become when we take the next step and build up a picture of what our ancestors lives were really like. Where did they live? Where did they shop? What did the town look like? Plus many more things along the way.